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No. 24 Purdue Puts the Hammer Down on Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - No. 15 Cashé Quiroga’s fall at 133 pounds proved to be the difference maker as No. 24 Purdue won its fourth straight dual over its instate rival Indiana, 18-16, in Memorial Gym Friday. Four other Boilermakers were victorious as Purdue pushed its season record to 6-5, 1-5 Big Ten. The loss leaves the Hoosiers still seeking their first win in Big Ten dual action at 7-7, 0-6 Big Ten.

“I thought tonight was exciting in terms of how the match score played out,” head wrestling coach Scott Hinkel said. “The wrestlers were cautious; you could see how the team score was developing and bottom line was that it came down to bonus points. It could have gone either way. It was a great dual with a great crowd and a great environment with a lot of tight matchups. All of the wins were huge tonight, when it comes down to team score.

“Both teams wrestled hard and we’re fortunate to come out on the winning end of it,” Hinkel said. “Now we get ready to go Monday night [against Ohio State]. We’ll have the same approach, but we have to look to score more and push the tempo. Hopefully we will have a great environment in Holloway [Gymnasium] since it’s live on the Big Ten Network.”

The instate rivals split matches at five each. Indiana took an early 6-0 lead by posting a pair of decisions at 157 and 165. Patrick Kissel got the Boilermakers on the board with an 8-2 decision of Matt Irick at 174. The redshirt junior from Sheboygan, Wis., used a pair of first period takedowns, added another in the second period and accumulated 2:34 in riding time en route to his 11th win of the season.

The Hoosiers added to their lead as Luke Sheridan notched a 5-3 decision over Purdue’s Tanner Lynde at 184. No. 12/14 Braden Atwood brought Purdue within three points at intermission, 9-6, by shutting out Cheney Dale, 3-0. Hailing from Delphi, Ind., Atwood escaped to start the second period and took Dale down with five seconds remaining in the bout to give him a 21-6 mark in his redshirt junior campaign.

Purdue won three of the five matches coming out of the break, starting with Camden Eppert’s 9-3 decision of Alonzo Shepherd at 125. A takedown by Shepherd and a reversal by Eppert sent the pair deadlocked at 2-2 heading into the second stanza, where the redshirt senior Boilermaker exploded for five points with a reversal and a three-point nearfall for a 7-2 advantage. Shepherd was warned and called for stalling during the final two minutes to award Eppert with a point. He also earned 2:30 worth of riding time to improve his season record to 10-9. With the two reversals, the Anderson, Ind., pushed his career total to 39 and is one reversal shy of tying Bob Piccchiotti for fourth on Purdue’s all-time list.

Quiroga (11-4) stepped out onto the mat with the Boilermakers trailing 13-9 and he wasted no time getting to work on Chris Caton. He took the freshman Hoosier down four times in the opening three minutes and three more times each in the second and third periods with a technical fall in sight. Quiroga took Caton down for a third time midway through the final period, pushing his lead to 20-8. In that last takedown, Quiroga locked in and got the pin at the 5:54 mark to put Purdue ahead, 15-13. The fall is the third of his redshirt senior campaign and 10th of his career. He took Caton down 10 times, pushing his career total to 357 to hold at No. 5 on the all-time list and is five takedowns out of a tie for fourth with Frank Laccone (362).

“The pin was big for Cashé, especially after he got caught last week,” Hinkel said. “He remembers wrestling [Indiana’s] Angel Escobedo as a freshman and having one of their seniors put it on him. He came out swinging tonight doing the same thing.”

The Boilermaker lead extended to 18-13 courtesy of Danny Sabatello’s 6-4 decision of Trevor Moody at 141. A pair of first period takedowns gave the redshirt sophomore a 2-1 edge. Sabatello opted to take bottom to start the second period and was unable to escape from Moody’s hold. The Indiana redshirt freshman escaped in the third, making the score 4-2 and managed to take Sabatello down to tie it up at 4-4. Sabatello had already locked the riding time point in with 1:12, so Moody was forced to let him go. Time expired to lift the Long Grove, Ill., native’s record to 18-8.

Purdue will be right back in action, playing host to No. 12 Ohio State Monday at 7 p.m. ET in Holloway Gymnasium LIVE on the Big Ten Network.